Abstract
This study aimed at investigating the behavioral and neuro-electrical impacts of a coordinative exercise intervention on the updating function of the working memory (WM) in young children. Children in the experimental group was tested on the 1-back working memory task before and after a coordinative exercise program that involved a 60 min session twice per week for eight weeks (totally 16 sessions), while the control group underwent routine classroom activities with the same WM tests. The results showed that the hit rates of performing the 1-back task increased significantly in the experimental group compared with that of the control group. The experimental group demonstrated a larger decrease in both reaction time and false alarm rates from pre-test to post-test than the control group. Physical fitness improved after exercise intervention in the experimental group. Neural adaptations due to the exercise training were evaluated using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and the results indicated that the experimental group experienced a greater cortical oxygenated hemoglobin (Oxy-Hb) increase in the prefrontal area after the intervention than the control group. These results suggest that coordinative exercises are beneficial for improving WM as well as reaction time and physical fitness in young children.
Highlights
Working memory (WM) involves three independent central executive function components: shifting, updating, and inhibition [1]
Because extensive research has shown that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is an important component of the neural substrate for working memory (WM) [3,19,20,21,22], this study examined the changes in the updating function of WM in kindergarten children after a long-term tennis exercise intervention and related functional neural adaptations in the frontal cortex during the 1-back task via functional near-infrared spectroscopy. fNIRS is a relatively new imaging technique for investigating cortical hemodynamic responses [23]
The post hoc test showed that the aerobic fitness of the experimental groupmeasures improved after intervention, but that of the control group didpresented not, Mean and standard deviation of physical fitness for the two groups are in the measure of “sit-and-reach”, Table 3. experimental
Summary
Working memory (WM) involves three independent central executive function components: shifting, updating, and inhibition [1]. The updating function changes the storage in the WM as new information appears. One of the most popular experimental paradigms investigating the updating function is the “n-back” procedure. Accumulating research has provided evidence linking the updating function of the WM with the fluid intelligence of school-age children [2]. Previous studies have shown that the updating function in WM influences children’s learning attainment. Mirandola et al [4] found that children with a specific difficulty at comprehending written text were less competent in performing updating tasks. Iuculano et al [5] showed that in comparison with normal children, children with mathematical learning difficulties have a relatively lower WM updating function
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